It’s been a while since I last baked cheesecake, and it takes patience to make a good one, much as it is easy to prepare. I am partial to baked cheesecakes, mainly because it also happened to be my first successful cake. I think baked cheesecakes are highly misunderstood; there are people who perceive the baked version as dry and gritty. Maybe they’ve had bad experience with lousy ones, I don’t know. But I assure you, if done with care and patience, they are anything but.

This cheesecake is smooth, creamy and velvety.
I made it also as a challenge to myself; Lloyd said he had once devoured a US$300 cheesecake his dad bought from NY, and it was the best cheesecake he ever had in his life.
Okay. I’m not sure if I should be worrying about calories or thinking about Lloyd’s metabolism rate, or the 300bucks. Anyway.

Since I’m already at the end of my therapy, I decided to stretch it even further by presenting it two ways.

One is topped with white chocolate shavings, and the other, adorned with strawberries and coated with raspberry glaze. Lloyd will be getting the strawberry version, quite obviously, as you can see it’s contained in an aluminum tray for ‘delivery’.
I don’t know if I would ever pay 300bucks for a cheesecake, especially when I can bake one. I suppose even if this version doesn’t taste or cost anywhere near like the 300bucks-cheesecake, it is still a pretty darned good take.
This ends my therapy. For the amount of baking I did in a day, I’m beginning to think that I’m really quite formidable indeed.